


Not Quite Yet

by dummywithnoserotonin



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: ? - Freeform, Alternate Universe - How to Train Your Dragon Fusion, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Angst, Chiefs, Dragon Riders, Dragons, Eventual Smut, Gay, Hurt/Comfort, I hate tags, I promise, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Shipwrecks, Slow Burn, Unrequited Dreamnap, Unrequited Love, Vikings, War, dreams just a bit hung up on sap, dtao3, smut?, wars about dragons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:34:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29265114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dummywithnoserotonin/pseuds/dummywithnoserotonin
Summary: Three islands, one very different from the other two. They all have dragons, but Stromay has dragon trainers as well. When a guy from Keerstre washes up on their island, how will it go, seeing how peaceful dragons can be? And why does one blond fucker want him to like dragons so bad?
Relationships: Cara | CaptainPuffy & Clay | Dream, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound & Darryl Noveschosch, Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	1. Prologue

Three chiefs sat around the table, one with fluffy white hair, comically sat on a stool to be the same height as the others, a pirate hat on her head and royal looking clothes on her. One had blond hair, green and white vertical stripes along his own hat, a dark green robe covered protectively by his gray wings, which seemed to be useless after a battle years ago. And finally a brown haired man, the tallest of the three, a beanie on his head with a brown trench coat surrounding him.

“After the raid today,” The oldest, Philza, began, his voice quiet as if it were a secret. He cleared his throat, “Two villagers were carried off, one named Tubbo and another named Ranboo,” The man explained, eyes cast downward, not meeting the other’s pitiful gazes.

“I’m sorry,” Puffy spoke, her voice so sorrowful some would be offended, but Phil knew her to only be kind. “Wilbur?”

“The dragons got half our livestock, half!” Wilbur said, angrily, fists clenched on top of the table. Phil barely took notice of his son’s anger, relaxed posture and staring consistently at the table.

“We had something.. new happen on our island today.” Puffy said, torn between explaining it and not, considering what had happened to these two.

“What’s that?” Wilbur asked, starting to pace around the room lit with candles, food left to get cold on the wooden table.

“We tried a new strategy, we waited for the dragons to attack first, we made ourselves as seemingly helpless as possibly. When we did, they didn’t attack, we had our livestock hidden, but they didn’t even search for—“

“Dragons? You’re sure you didn’t hallucinate this, Puffy?” Wilbur asked rudely, but the other brushed it off as anger not directed at her per se.

“Yes, I'm sure, my entire village saw this. One dragon, I think it was a young timberjack, even was friendly with my son.” Puffy explained, pausing to see the suspicious looks from the two men. “I swear, I know it sounds like something out of a god’s dream. But, with this, I believe, if we try this strategy, befriend the dragons instead of kill them, we could put a stop to this.” She ended, looking around quickly to gauge their reactions.

“That’s the stupidest shit I’ve heard, did you not hear what I just said?!” Now Phil was angry, “Two of my people were carried off by these beasts! Half of Wilbur’s livestock was taken, how in Odin’s sake do you expect us to befriend these dragons?!” His voice was below a yell, but still terrifying.

“I don’t know what you were thinking, Puffy, I’m beyond surprised anyone made it out of your village alive tonight.” Wilbur said, “Please bring feasible ideas to these meetings, not ones that will get our entire villages killed.”

“Listen, we should try it, keep weapons near you and—“

“If you keep talking about this, we’ll have to send you home.” Phil threatened, but Puffy desperately needed them to see.

“Why won’t you listen to me?!”

“Who thought putting a chieftain this young would be a good idea?” Wilbur sighed, shooting a glare to Puffy.

“It was no one’s choice to put me as chieftain, it’s tradition, you were younger when made chief. You have no space to talk, Wilbur.” Puffy clenched her fists, standing up. “You guys wait, I’ll prove you wrong, wait.” She said, and stormed off.

Ignoring the stares from Phil’s village, she swung round a corner and onto the docks, stepping onto her waiting ship.

“How did it go?” A deep voice she recognized easily asked, and she turned to see Eret leaning against the mast of the ship.

“They wouldn’t listen to a single thing I said, they insulted me and would’ve kicked me out if I hadn’t left myself. We’re going home.” The chief said, voice gruff while she looked up at the sailor.

As the boat sailed, the sloshing of water by paddles constantly in the air around them, Puffy looked, seeing the two other chiefs laughing while they walked out of Phil’s house. She clenched her fists, used to being quite friendly with the two, but now she felt anger towards them, for dismissing her so quick, for insulting her competence, for not even trying to see her point. 

It was early sunrise when they arrived at their island, all of them clambering tiredly off their boat and greeting the dock workers just as tiredly. Puffy saw some early rising kids, including one she considered her own as his parents had died on a voyage, running around with wooden weapons. She smiled, walking over to them and placing her hand on the blond kid’s shoulder.

“Oh, hi, Puffy!” He said, happily abandoning his ravenette friend who just continued to run at another with a red and black hoodie.

“Hey, duckling,” Puffy said, “Why are you up so early?” She asked kneeling down, to be able to look at him.

“I was playing hunt with Pandas and Bad!” Dream replied, a toothy smile forming on his face.

“You’re always hanging out with those two,” Puffy said, and when seeing the confused and almost scared look in her kid’s— not her kid, the kid’s eyes, she rushed to explain. “That’s not a bad thing, I love that you’ve got friends. Just make sure you’re getting enough sleep, alright?” She explained, and the emotions quickly turned back to happiness.

“Yeah, I am! Do you wanna play hunt with us?” He invited, waving his fake sword around wildly.

“I’ve had a long day, I’ll play with you another time.” The chief promised, patting him on the head before standing up.

“Okay, have a good day, Puffy!” He shouted, running off to catch up to his friends.

Puffy watched him, a somber smile on her face, and walked to her house. While she laid in her bed, she couldn’t sleep with the light filtering through her curtains, no matter how much she changed her position to get comfortable. Something told her to get up, because something was going on. And eventually, she got up, legs wobbling because she’d been laying down for at least an hour now.

Despite concerned looks from people who had seen her get off a ship maybe two hours ago, she walked into the forest, where she regularly went to calm herself of random urges and feelings. It wasn’t silent this time, though, she heard a kid yelling in delight? Fear? She couldn’t tell. Then she heard a dragon screeching, and quickened her pace, knowing she didn’t have a weapon, but figuring it was more important to get whatever kid was messing with a dragon out of there,

Sure, she’d seen them be kind and sweet, but there was a lingering distrust of them, letting them near kids who didn’t know any better if they whacked the dragon and got it angry. When nearing a clearing, she recognized the voice, and panic seared her heart, stumbling to the edge of the clearing panting. But what she saw confirmed her theory.

Dream was playing with what seemed to be a young Timberjack, careless of its razor sharp wings, which were raised in declaration of trust. She stayed quiet, as neither had noticed her yet, watching Dream crawl under the dragon, examining the wings carefully, running a hand along them. He flinched back when his finger got a small cut, blood clotting around the small wound quickly. Almost to show, the Timberjack reached up with its wing, slicing a branch off a tree with such ease it made both humans shudder. The child recovered from the slight sense of freight the sight gave him, and went to look at the branch that had been cut off.

The Timberjack looked around, and spotted the adult hiding in the trees, letting out a screech and lifting off the ground suddenly. A cry of pain from Dream made her rush to him while the Timberjack flew off, spooked by the other human.

Dream held his face in both hands, blood trickling down his hands as Puffy ran over to him. “Dream, hey, I’m here, I’m gonna get you back to town, okay?” She asked, picking him up and trodding through the forest at a quick pace.

“You made him go away!” Came a muffled complaint, obviously more concerned about the dragon flying off than his own injury.

“I didn’t mean to, plus, is that what you should be worrying about now?” Puffy asked, playful now that she knew the wound couldn’t be that bad.

“It doesn’t even hurt that bad,” Dream replied, and Puffy walked into the healer’s station, carefully putting Dream down on a bed.

“Timberjack wound, it was young, I don’t think it got him good, plus, it was my fault. I was the one who scared it.” She explained, getting confused looks from the people who were getting bandage and healing ointments, but they didn’t question her.

About 10 minutes later, Dream’s wound was taken care of, the bandage going diagonally across his face. Puffy smiled at him, about to speak when he spoke first.

“This is gonna make a great scar!” He said happily, not bothered by whatever pain he was going through. “That dragon was so cool, he let me look at his wings and his hooks, and his teeth and he didn’t even seem mad! What do you think I should name him?” He rambled on and on about how great the dragons were, how they should help them, not kill them.

“Dream,” She began, finally making the decision after countless days of pondering on it. It would mean choosing her heir, who would be chief when she was gone, or too frail to continue. “How would you feel about me adopting you?”


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why did George have to end up here of all places?

Okay, maybe George should’ve listened to the elder when she said that there was a big storm coming. But, to be fair, he would’ve gotten a lot of cash out of it.. that is, if there hadn’t been a storm, and his ship hadn’t been wrecked.

And what he didn’t expect was to get washed up on Stormay, especially after he saw the ocean dragons swirling around his vision. He expected maybe to be pulled under, eaten, whatever the beasts do, but not to be on an island. And especially not wake up to hearing the Chief’s son’s voice saying, “He looks like a twink from Kerstre, really.” Followed by laughing from an entire crew.

“I fuckin’ heard that,” George mumbled, lifting his head and trying to block out the sun.

“Oh shit he’s awake,” He heard a different voice, while he struggled to get up. A hand helped him, and he was faced with an almost dark yellow hoodie (it was probably green, he knew that) in his face.

“How’d someone from Kerstre get to our island?” D... something, he forgot his name, asked.

“I got shipwrecked, what does it look like, dumbass?” George asked, glaring weakly at him while he was helped onto the ship.

“Someone’s grumpy,” He turned to face a ravenette who had made the comment, and sighed, to tired to be too annoyed with him. The blond helped him sit down somewhere mildly comfortable— he was sure the boats they had were better— and started tending to his wounds.

“I can clean myself up,” George huffed, taking the rag and starting to clean his own wounds the best he could.

“What’s your name?” The ravenette asked, steering the ship seemingly back to the main village.

“George.” He answered shortly, “Yours?” He asked, referring to both that had helped him.

“I’m Dream, that’s Sapnap,” The blond gestured to himself then the other.

“Weird names,” George commented, holding the cloth to a bleeding wound.

Soon enough, they got back to the main village, George dozing so much that he jumped at the slightly rough landing they got.

“Do you know how to drive a shi— What the fuck why is there a dragon there?!” He yelled the last part of the sentence, fear lacing his voice.

“... You do know where you are, right?” Dream asked, knowing where George came from wasn’t friendly to dragons.

“Yes! But the dragons, they’re just.. roaming?” George looked at Dream like he was insane. Dream almost laughed at him.

“Yep, that’s how it works, because, yknow, they’re not violent creatures.” Dream said, showcasing this by whistling, and an entire Timberjack landed half gracefully on the dock.

“Yep saw a sheep get sliced in half by one of those, nope,” George said, backing up, “Get me back to my island, now, I am not spending another second with you fucking insane people.” He declared, despite barely being able to walk properly.

“George, listen, you can’t go back yet, you’ve got wounds that need treating like, soon, or they’ll get infected. Plus, our ships are all out looking for shipwrecked people like you, and I doubt Puffy would like the idea of someone taking up one of those because they’re scared of dragons.” The blond explained, waving his dragon off and leading George and Sapnap towards the healer’s station.

George scoffed a bit, opening his mouth to respond but not figuring out a response. “I— whatever, Mr. Chief’s son,” he mumbled the weak.. insult? as they got inside, and there were a few people in there. Two, about the same height, were in lighthearted argument with each other. One seemed to be a healer, having bandages in his hands and a red (brown?) and black hoodie one. The other was wearing a bloodied light blue hoodie.

“Skeppy, you need to stay here, if you move too much your bandages will come undone and you’ll start bleeding again. If a wound that big starts bleeding again you could get seriously hurt.” The brunet with an inviting voice explained, his hands on his friend’s, apparently named Skeppy, shoulder.

“Okay, yeah, but I’ll be fine, Bad!” Skeppy protested.

“Nope, you're staying here for at least a day.” Bad decided, gently pushing Skeppy down on a cot, and then turned to the three waiting. “Hi, Dream! How are you?” He asked happily, bringing Dream in for a hug.

“I’m good, Bad, thanks. How about you?” Dream replied, getting a ‘Good!’ in response before Bad turned to the new person.

“Hi, what’s your name?” He asked, pushing his glasses up on his face.

“George, and you’re Bad, I guess.” George said, giving a smile for politeness’s sake.

“Yep, did you get shipwrecked?” Bad asked, leading the brunet to a little space with a bed and some basic medical supplies.

“Yeah, thought I could get some more rare fish before the storm.. I was wrong.” George admitted, shrugging. He heard a scoff from Dream, and glared in response, Bad waving the blond off who was followed out by Sapnap.

“Don’t mind Dream, he’s very attached to the dragons, and I assume you.. don’t like them?” Bad asked as he gently started cleaning the wounds properly.

“No, I’ve seen kids get carried off by them.” George said, a bit defensively, feeling out of place in the dragon-loving island. 

“They don’t harm anyone if it’s not in defense, I’m sure the kids that were carried off were taken to the nest.” Bad explained softly, obviously trying not to make George angry.

“And what happens at the nest?” George asked, his voice going less defensive, seeing as Bad wasn’t judging him.

“Most people who have been there say it’s just the dragons teaching them tricks about whatever dragon brought them there. Sometimes whichever dragon brought them there will bring them that and that’ll be their dragon.” Bad said, smiling and wrapping some of the worst wounds in bandages.

George hummed in response, deciding not to think about the fact that, if Bad was telling the truth, they had a point. “Then why haven’t those kids shown back up?”

Bad seemed to have to think about this one for a little bit, his eyes narrowing slightly under his glasses. “Well, can you imagine trying to put a kid back on an island that kills thousands of your kind? It doesn’t seem easy.” He reasoned, and the other failed to come up with a response to that.

The two fell into silence, and once Bad had finished dressing the injuries, he started having George move his limbs to see if they had been hurt in some way he couldn’t see.

“Okay, move your shoulder around in a circle, please,” He requested nicely, tapping George’s left shoulder. When he did attempt to move his shoulder, he yelped out in unexpected pain.

“Fuck! Okay, yep, that’s not right,” George said, his face scrunched up in pain.

“Okay, language. But, what does the pain feel like?” Bad asked.

“Really bad,” George retorted, the pain making him annoyed. “Sorry, like, it hurts a lot in the front of my shoulder. Like it’s fine if I don’t lift it or anything I think, but if I lift my arm it hurts and kind of spreads downwards.” He explained.

“Okay, well, I think that to help that, you’ll have to keep from moving it before it isn’t as inflamed, which it seems to be right now,” Bad made the point by gently pressing his fingers on the area, and they felt unnaturally cold against his skin. “So once it isn’t as swollen and stuff, which will take a day or two, if you want, you can stay a little longer and I can help with getting whatever is going on back to normal.”

George looked at him, the exact opposite of wanting to stay here any longer. This guy was too nice to insult his home island to his face, though, so he shrugged, “Okay, yeah, sounds good.” He said, and waved goodbye to Bad before he went to check on other people there.

He laid down, having to shift around to get comfortable with his various injuries, which had the courtesy of being on both his sides. So, he had to uncomfortably lay on his back in an unfamiliar place which he didn’t trust at all.

Meanwhile, Dream and Sapnap were training Sapnap on his two-headed Dragon, which he didn’t have a permanent partner for yet. So, Dream helped him train on it.

“No, Dream, we have to go the same way, the dragons are connected!” Sapnap groaned, as they failed to get past the obstacle course they’d set up once again.

“I know they’re connected, Sap, we do the obstacle course different ways, remember?” Dream replied snarkily, annoyed and laying back on the dragon’s neck who was flying wherever it pleased now.

“Yeah, whatever, let’s do this later.” Sapnap decided, steering both heads of the dragon with no help, landing the big creature near the village center, where the feeding place was. Both men got off the dragon, and started walking around, making normal conversation with a few people they knew.

“Should we go check up on Bad, isn’t he one of like two people in his station?” Dream asked, already walking towards the place. Sapnap silently agreed and walked there with him.

Soon enough they got there, and Skeppy sat up in excitement about being able to talk to some of his friends.

“Dream! Sap!” He yelled, prompting a ‘Shh!’ from Bad who was feeding his baby dragon.

“Hey, Skeppy, how are you doing?” Sapnap asked, hugging him with care for the wound on his side.

“Good as I can, Bad won’t let me leave.” Skeppy complained, pointedly looking at the person across the room.

“I’ve explained that if you move too much the wound will open again, plus your ankle needs to heal. I don’t know why you insisted on walking here on your own when you had sprained it.” Bad replied, giving him an ‘annoyed’ look.

“Because I didn’t think that it would hurt my ankle more!” Skeppy defended himself, getting a quiet eye roll from Bad.

“Okay, stop arguing with your boyfriend—“

“We’re not dating!”

“— and tell me how the hell you had a Zippleback for years? Dream and I can’t manage to have any coordination.” Sapnap finished, ignoring the interjection.

“I don’t know, Bad and I was just good at communicating quickly. Try training with different people, Sapnap.” Skeppy shrugged, getting an offended look from the blond. “Oh don’t look so offended, you normally ride a Timberjack, you can’t expect to be good with a Zippleback.”

The group continued their conversation, much to the dismay of George who was woken up by the loud talking.

Two days later, Bad was sitting by his bed again, testing the movement of his arm.

“Okay, well, it doesn’t seem inflamed anymore. I wanna keep you at least one more day, but you can at least walk around now. Don’t move your arm too much, don’t strain it, and if it starts hurting again come tell me. Got it?” Bad listed, smiling at the brunet who had become quite friendly over the past two days. To him, at least.

“Alright, sounds good—“

“Hey! George, you should come with me to the pens. It’ll be fun, I promise. You don’t have any other friends on this island, so you don’t have any options. Come on!” Dream babbled, and George groaned as he heard the excited chatter from Dream.

“We’re not friends, and I’m not going to the pens of dragons with you.” George replied, sending a glare to the dragon trainer.

“George I think it’ll be good for you.” Bad interjected, which prompted a confused look in his direction.

“How’s that?” George asked disbelievingly.

“Well, depending if there’s a ship available or not, you might have to stay here for longer. You should at least get comfortable being around dragons.” Bad explained, which actually made George think about the offer.

“Nope, still no, I won’t be here for long.” George denied, relaxing back into his bed and figuring that was better off just sitting here than having to get up and see dragons.

“How about I bring a dragon in here?” Dream suggested, fixated on getting this stranger to like dragons.

“Still no.” George replied, getting bored with the constant annoying him to like dragons.

“Georgie, come on—“ Dream began, quickly cut off by an annoyed:

“Don't call me that.”

But he continued anyway, “What if I just show you my dragon? It doesn’t even have to be close. Just let me show you that they’re not that bad.” 

“Are you ever gonna give up?”

“No.”

“Fine, you can show me your dragon. I’m not gonna like it or think it’s cool, but I’ll do it to shut you up.” George decided, pushing himself off the bed with his good arm and walking over to Dream.

“Great, okay, come here. I’ll take you to my house. Well not in it, near it, cause Bolk can’t come in the house. The last time we let him…” Dream began, but George tuned him out and just followed wherever he was walking.

After maybe 3 minutes of mindlessly walking wherever the younger was, George saw what seemed to be the Chief’s house. “Do you still live with your mom?” He asked, interrupting Dream carelessly.

“Uh.. well, yeah, kinda.” Dream said, his cheeks flaring up which pronounced the freckles there. “Anyway, I was saying that once Sap and I ended up in the nest together, and we spent like 3 days there. The nest is kind of like a coming of age, thing. How old are you, by the way?” Dream asked, pausing his endless talking to look at George.

“24. You?” George replied, his hands going into his pockets while they walked past the large house.

“21… you’re 24?” Dream hummed, seeming surprised.

“Yeah? Why?” He looked at the taller, a bit confused.

“You look younger.” The blond said simply, and George wasn’t sure if he was offended by that or not.

“Thanks, I guess,” He mumbled, both going silent for a while. “Did you say your dragon’s name was.. Bolk?” George questioned, the name sounding strange with his accent.

“Yea but—“ Dream cut himself off with laughter, easily contagious too, and if George wasn’t focused on not liking this island or most people on it, he would’ve laughed too. “Sorry, you just— you pronounced it so weird! ‘Bolk’,” He mocked the accent lightheartedly.

“Don’t mock me,” George said, defensive and weird about being teased by this guy. Dream noticed the difference in attitude and tried his best to calm down his laughing.

“Sorry,” He apologized a bit more sincerely that time, but there was still the obvious amusement in his voice. It’s the thought that counts right?

George just huffed in response; he wasn’t genuinely mad at the mockery, he just wanted a reason to not like Dream. With the silence, George remembered that he was going to see a dragon, up close, and have to be near it, and it was a timberjack, which he’d seen trees be split without a thought.

“How do you trust dragons so much?” George asked, a bit more quiet than his normal loud voice. Almost tentative?

“I mean, I’ve just never… distrusted them, I guess. Bolk has been with me since I was really young. He did give me this, but that’s because he got spooked.” Dream explained, and George looked over to see him pointing to a large scare that stretched across his face.

“I have a scar,” George said, not liking the topic of trusting or distrusting dragons despite him being the one who brought it up. Dream seemed to want to see, by the prompting look he gave. “It’s on my back,” He explained, and the other nodded in understanding.

“How did you get it?” Dream asked, slowing to a stop on the outside of a clearing.

“Deathgripper,” George said, “It’s an acid scar, it doesn’t look nearly as cool as yours. No one sees it anyway.” He added, laughing in an almost forced way.

“Deathgripper? I’ve— Well I've never heard of someone getting out alive from an acid attack with them. Do you mind telling me the story?” Dream asked, interested in how this guy was still alive after being hit by a Deathgripper’s acid.

“Later,” George shook his head, meaning it as a no indirectly.

“Okay, yea, well.” Dream took a breath, looking over at him, then looked toward the clearing and whistled a certain way. Soon enough, a loud thump of something landing, and a grown timberjack had landed in the clearing. Dream quickly motioned for George to come closer than behind the edge of the grassy plain.

“No way, I’m not going near that thing.” George immediately responded, shaking his head.

“Okay, but at least call ‘that thing’ his name. Even if you pronounce it wrong,” Dream retorted, the last part meant to be quiet enough.

“We have different accents that’s why I pronounce it like that—“ George cut off his sentence with a yelp as Bolk began making its way towards him. “Get it away from me!” George yelled at Dream, and the other sighed in response, snapping his fingers.

“Come,” He commanded the dragon, and Bolk did, walking away from George with a curious look at the brunet. “He won’t hurt you,” Dream began, getting a suspicious look from George. “Seriously, if you just let him near you, he won’t do anything.” He added, waving towards himself to beckon the other over.

“Didn’t he give you that scar?” George asked, not planning on going near the beast anytime soon.

“Because my mom scared him, and he lifted off in a hurry, and slashed my face. It wasn’t his fault, was it buddy?” The last part got a much more playful tone, as he turned to the dragon who’s eyes lit up and started tearing up the grassy ground with his hooks. Dream was grinning at his dragon, and George thought it similar to how he interacted with his dog at home.

“He’s kind of like my dog,” George commented, leaning against a tree, feeling unnaturally relaxed with a dragon maybe 10 feet away from him.

“I mean, yeah, I guess. If your dog could fly, shoot fire, and slice through trees.” Dream said smugly, and the reminder wasn’t too appreciated by George, who went back to his tense stance.

“Thanks for the reminder,” He said sarcastically, crossing his arms with a huff.

“Hey, I mean if you’re gonna like dragons, you need to be comfortable with the fact they can do those things.” Dream shrugged, “but, sorry. I won’t mention it anymore.” He added, sounding genuine this time in his apology.

“Yea,” George answered shortly, shrugging in some way of accepting the apology.

Both of them went back to silence as Dream played around with his dragon, George getting a homesick feeling in his head, or his chest, somewhere.

“You’re sure that you won’t even get close?” Dream asked, “I can promise he won’t hurt you.”

“He hurt you,” George countered, aware Dream had already countered that argument, but he hated the thought of being so close to something that could just slice him in half if it pleased.

“I already defended that,” Dream replied, but took the answer and went back to getting leaves out of the spines on his back quietly.

After a little while, George sat down against the tree trunk, quietly watching the two just be… friends. That was a strange word to think of a dragon as, friend. All he knew was that they took kids, livestock, lives, he didn’t know dragons as friends of humans.

“You guys have never had any.. incidents? With the dragons?” George asked, not looking at Dream out of preference.

“If you’re wondering if they’ve hurt anyone, yea,” The honest answer surprised George, and he looked over for more of an explanation. “Not on purpose, of course, accidents happen. So, there have been incidents, but not malicious incidents.” He added, shooting a smile towards George.

“That’s so strange,” George went back to studying the bark of a nearby tree, some letters carved into it. “Every month, someone… a dragon hurts someone bad, purposefully, every four months maybe, someone dies from one.” He said, not understanding how the islands could be so different in their understandings of dragons.

“Well,” Dream stopped his grooming of his dragon, eyebrows furrowing. He was silent for a moment, thinking of a response to the statement. “How many dragons do your people kill a month?” He asked, and George thought about it.

“But we do… it’s in self defense.” George shook his head, eyes moving to the ground below him.

“Who attacks first?” Dream asked, his voice quiet because he understood George was going through some kind of realization about dragons.

“I don’t— I mean…” The brunet trailed off, abruptly getting up. “It’s dark,” it was only getting dark, really, but the blond didn’t comment. “I’m gonna go back to.. to the medics place.” He decided, walking back the way they came, just hoping he remembered the path.

“Do you know how to get back?” Dream asked, trailing behind him as Bolk flew above them.

“I’m pretty sure,” George mumbled, gaze unfocused on where he was walking, lost in thought.

“You know, you could stay at my place, the cots there aren’t that comfortable.” Dream blurted, flicking his wrist to let Bolk go where he wanted rather than following them.

“They’re fine, I’m good,” George shook his head, walking past Dream’s house and not saying another word to him.

Dream watched him walk off, making sure he was at least going in the direction of the nurses’ station, then walked inside. “Hi, Puffy,” he greeted, waving to his adopted mother who was sitting in front of the fire.

“Hey, Dream, you’re back a bit early,” She commented, marking down something on her ever-growing map, then wrote something down in a notebook.

“Yea, did I ever tell you that we found a guy from Kerstre?” Dream asked, grabbing a plate of leftover food from the other day.

“You didn’t tell me,” Puffy let out a little laugh, “How did he react to the dragons?” She asked, turning and standing to look at the blond who was comically taller than her by a foot.

“He won’t go near them, I just brought him to the clearing and showed him Bolk, wouldn’t even get near him.” Dream explained with amusement in his voice. A scoff came in response, along with a ‘Not surprised.’ from his mom.

“He wasn’t violent? Most from Kerstre are,” She asked, turning back to her map and notes.

“No, he’s shorter than Sapnap anyway, he couldn’t do much.” Dream shook his head. “I think I got him to realize dragons aren’t naturally violent, though.”

“Oh did you?” Puffy asked, a disbelieving tone in her voice.

“Really! I did! I mean, it seemed like it. I asked him who attacked first on his island and he ran off, so at least he heard a good argument.” Dream explained.

“Yea, good luck on getting him to like dragons.”

The next day, George had assumed it was his last day, but apparently Dream had other plans. Because he was walking to the infirmary, he paused outside when he heard Bad telling George he was able to leave to his island.

Now, ask him about his next actions, and Dream couldn’t tell you why he did this, but he did. He had the impulsive idea to run back home, and— well, here.

“Puffy! Hey, can you do something for me?” Dream asked, panting from having to run about 40 feet uphill.

“Weren’t you just here?— Whatever, what’s up?” She asked, confused and almost concerned by the urgency the other seemed to have.

“Okay, remember that boy I was trying to get to like dragons?” Dream began, getting a confused nod in return, “He can go back now, but I don’t want him to. Can you keep him here by.. like not allowing ships to go to Kerstre, or Delcul?” He asked, aware he sounded maybe a bit insane, and was possibly abusing his power as the chief tan’s son.

“I—“ Puffy looked at him like he was crazy, “Why are you so focused on getting this guy to uproot his beliefs of his entire life?” She asked, considering the idea, since they had been forced to cut ties with their two neighboring islands years ago, after Niki had replaced Phil as Kerstre’s chief, and Fundy replaced Wilbur.

“I don’t know, Puffy! You know how I am! Plus, he’s colorblind or something, he thought Bolk was brown. You can bond over that!” Dream said, getting an unamused look from his mother.

“Yea, alright, go tell the dock workers that no ships will be going to Kerstre until I say so.” Puffy waved her hand dismissively, her eyes rolling fondly at Dream’s newfound obsession with this boy.

“I’m not gonna run all the way there— okay yeah fine whatever.” Dream complained until he was given a ‘Really?’ look from the white-haired woman. Then he was out the door again, running haphazardly down the hill. He passed George on the way, and gave a wave to the confused man, before continuing his rush to the docks.

“Hey, Karl!” Dream yelled to the boy who was working on a broken ship currently.

“Yea?” He called back, awkwardly standing up on the concerningly shaky boat.

“Puffy said no ships are going to Kerstre till she says so.” Dream explained, getting a confused look.

“Why’s that?” He asked, carefully stepping onto the much more sturdy docks.

“Uh.. I dunno, she just said it,” Dream smiled.

“Did you run all the way here?” Karl questioned, confused about Dream’s seeming urgency and suspicious lack of a reason.

“Yep!” He admitted happily, “Anyway, I gotta go talk to someone. See ya’!” Dream smiled, starting to walk away, about 10 steps away when he remembered something, and speedwalked back awkwardly. “Also, Sapnap wants to try training with you on his Zippleback, he told me to tell you.” He added, and actually walked away from Karl. (Maybe Sapnap hadn’t told him specifically to tell Karl, but he figured he’d get out of the dysfunctional training with him.)

He walked until he saw George, and tapped him on the shoulder to stop him. “Hey, Georgie!” He said, putting his hands in his pockets.

“Oh, hey Dream, I was actually just about to leave. Did you need something?” George asked, tapping his foot on the ground.

“Oh, well I was wondering if you wanted to come watch me practice moves with Bolk. Also, ships going to Kerstre are… well you can’t go back home basically. My mom just told me. Guess you’re stuck here! Wanna come with me to my training session?” Dream rambled to him, acting like he didn’t know George wanted to get off this island as quick as possible.

“Sorry, I can’t get home?” George asked, an annoyed expression on his face.

“Uh, yeah, not my fault though,” He lied easily, “Is that. yes or no?”

“You’re telling me I’m stranded on an island full of dragons, and you’re asking if I want to go watch your train on your dragon?” George clarified, in disbelief of Dream acting like this was nothing.

“Yep… can you answer my question?” Dream asked, acting as if he was getting bored, when really he’d probably wait for George’s answer for hours.

“Fine, whatever, I’ll go.” George grumbled, fists clenching in annoyance, not directed at Dream (mostly) just at whyever he couldn’t go home from this god forsaken island.

“Great, let’s go!” Dream said, whistling in a certain tone and grabbing George’s arm and dragging him along with him. George reluctantly followed, not having anything better to do.

Within 10 minutes, George was sitting against the same tree from the previous night, and Dream was saddling up Bolk.

“You said your dragon is red, right?” George asked, trying to make casual conversation for the time being.

“Yep, also, you know my mom?” Dream asked, as if she wasn’t the chieftain of George’s village’s rival village.

“Of course I know your mom, Dream,” George replied with a small laugh.

“Okay, yeah, I think she’s got the same color blindness as you.” Dream said, getting on the saddle and hooking himself onto it. “Anyway, if you get bored and wanna ride with me, just wave me down!” Dream said, knowing full well George would never want to do that.

“Why would I—“ George was cut off by a strong burst of wind as Bolk took off from the ground. He covered his face, hair flying everywhere at the strong gust, groaning in annoyance.

For about half an hour, George watched, mesmerized (not that he would ever admit that) by the fluid movements Bolk made through the sky, how the small glimpses of Dream being close enough to see him were gone in a moment. The dragon mesmerized him, and he couldn’t tell if it was in a scary way, or if it piqued his interest in the creature. He’d thought long last night, when he couldn’t sleep because of the loud snoring from Skeppy. He’d thought about the last argument Dream had made, if the implied point was right. Who attacked first when the dragons came to their island? The people. How many people died monthly? Maybe one. How many dragons died monthly? At least ten. Was this island right? Then why was he still terrified of them? Was his entire life wrong?

He was interrupted from his thoughts by another strong gust of air, and a thump which signaled Dream and Bolk had landed.

“Interesting?” Dream asked smugly, seeing George’s expression of interest still stuck on his dragon.

“Well— sure, you could say that.” George mumbled, rolling his eyes.

“Do you have friends at home? Significant other?” Dream asked as he was getting down, patting his dragon.

“I don’t have a partner, but I’ve got a few friends.” George replied, “You?”

Dream sighed, waiting a moment before he answered. “You know my friend Sapnap? I’ve liked him for years, but I think he doesn’t like me back.” He said, and George mumbled an ‘Oh’ and the conversation diffused.

“How long do you think you’ll stay— oh my god!” Dream yelled as Bolk suddenly got up, walking around and dragging Dream, who was still connected to his saddle, with him. The blond was laughing, wheezing and yelling at the dragon who knew what he was doing to stop.

And honestly, that made George think that maybe, just possibly, dragons weren’t as bad as he was taught they were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mmmmm follow my twitter @dummywithnosrtn
> 
> this is fun to write, my plan isn’t fully worked out so tags might change, but i’m vv excited abt this :)


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, maybe this isn't that bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this chapter is one, late, I'm sorry, I lost a bit of motivation but I should be back pretty regularly now! Two, there's suggestive themes, if you don't like that, you can pretty easily skip past the parts. It's mostly George being in denial!

“George, come on! You have to at least trust my dragon if you’re gonna be here for a while!” Dream complained, tugging the other away from his current task, mindful of his shoulder.

“Go away.” George complained weakly, trying to shield his eyes from the sun.

“Look, here, I’ve got a suggestion. How about we go to the training center, and we can watch the dragons train for a bit? There’s like protective rails and stuff. You’ll be fine! I promise.” Dream groaned, already pulling him towards the training pens.

“No, Dream, seriously, I’ve been here for like 6 days now and I don’t want to learn about dragons.” George denied firmly, tugging his arm out of his grasp. “I don’t want to.” He reiterated.

Dream saw the firm look, and maybe a hint of fear on George’s face, he stopped his attempts at getting him to the pens. “Okay, well, what else are you gonna do?” Dream asked, aware George spent most of the time he wasn’t with him in the nurse’s station.

“I don’t know, Dream, I’ll just walk around or something, go into the forest for a bit.” George sighed, walking away from the blond quickly, leaving Dream confused at the coldness of the interaction.

The problem wasn’t Dream, it wasn’t dragons, hell it wasn’t even homesickness. It was just him. Honestly, when George had thought it would be a good idea to fish before a storm, he didn’t think it was a good idea. He thought it was a terrible idea, but he didn’t care, because oh no, what was the worst that could happen? And nothing terrible happened, nothing life changing happened. But now, he felt like he wanted to stay at this island. And why was that? Because he had a friend here. Sure, he was friendly with a few people in Kerstre, but at Stormay, he had a friend who cared about him, and made him get out of doing nothing but his weird physical therapy which he was convinced was doing nothing everyday. So maybe the problem was Dream. Or it was himself, scared of getting attached to someone.

George got himself back to the present when he heard the tell-tale noise of one of those small guys, that didn’t do much damage ever, but hurt a lot if they wanted to. He froze, looking around and spotting a slightly bright yellow colored terrible terror, sniffing around towards him. He held the bread he’d taken with him, glancing at the dragon, then the food for a few moments, eventually just holding it out to the small dragon. Apparently, that wasn’t the best thing to do, because when it grabbed it out of his hand, he was also bit, most likely by accident. 

“Fuck!” He hissed, glaring at the dragon who swallowed the bread without a care in the world. It soon flew off, and George continued his walk with an annoyed sigh.

He didn’t know if he liked this island or not, he was somewhere in between with his emotions. Everything here was new, and he was always told that the new things were bad. But they weren’t that bad, in his opinion, they were just different. Was that all his home island was scared of? Different things? Why were they so focused on that dragons were bad, and were deadly? Dream’s words from a few days before rung in his ears, he couldn't stop thinking of them. Who started everything? Who started the fights, who was the first attacker? Was ti the dragons fault they attacked the humans, or were the humans the ones who were at fault during the attacks?

George slowly tried to unpack his thoughts, and his chest tightened, the fear that everything he’d been taught was wrong coming back. He shook his head, wanting to ignore the fact he might be wrong, that everything he knew might be wrong. At this point, though, he knew the thoughts about everything just came back, again and again and again, every time.

Though, after five more minutes of pondering on his reasons for almost liking this island, George noticed about 7 terrible terrors in front of him. He froze once again, seeing their tongues hanging awkwardly out of their mouths. Their eyes were widened more than what he’d seen in illustrations, and looking at his hands. They were all different colors, and one flapped it’s small wings, lifting off the ground and making a huffing sound. The brunet looked curiously at the small dragon, and soon saw some yellow gas forming in its mouth as it opened it. It took George a second to remember that’s what happens when they’re getting ready to spit weak fire at someone, and jumped out of the way, but not quick enough to prevent the fire burning his forearm slightly.

So he pushed the small dragon away, and ran towards the village again, the burn hurting like hell when he was about a minute away. He slowed to a walk once he was in the village, but sped walk to the medic’s house. He got in there and saw Bad having an… intimate moment with who he’d come to know as Skeppy. He promptly gagged quietly and went to look for Dream, even more annoyed with the blond now that he got hurt, which didn’t make sense, but he was done with being on this island. 

Soon, the blond was spotted, but seemed to spot George first, as he was quickly engulfed in an unwanted hug. “George! Hey I’m sorry for pressur—“

George glared at him and wiggled out of his grasp. “Shut up, Dream, I wanna go home.” George said, “Some terrible terror fucking burnt me while I was taking a peaceful walk!” He complained. “I fed one of them and then there were like 7 of them on me!” George exaggerated his words by showing Dream the burn which was starting to blister.

Dream looked at him, an amused look on his face, “George, do you know anything?” He patronized, not realising the genuineness of George’s annoyance. “You’re not supposed to—“ He broke himself off in a wheeze.

“Dream I want to go home!” George repeated, not sure how to communicate his seriousness.

“George, did your head get bonked or something? The ships can’t go to your island.” Dream explained, “Aww, wittle Gogy can’t wemember anyfing!” He mocked, in a baby voice while grinning.

“Dream!” George scolded, a lump in his throat forming at not being understood one bit.

“No no- it’s okay, George, I get it, your old and your memory’s going— George?” Dream’s voice turned concerned when George simply turned away and stomped to who knows where.

“Never mind.” George replied, his voice stupid and watery and vulnerable— why was he so easily frustrated?

“George wait, wait I’m sorry, come back please.” Dream pleaded, following him.

“Go away, Dream, you obviously don’t care.” George shoved the hand off his shoulder when it was placed there.

“I do care, really, I didn’t know you were serious. Let’s get the burn treated, and then talk about it? We can go to the clearing and stuff, yeah?” Dream compromised, jogging to get in front of George and see his face. George’s hands shot up to wipe the tears that had gathered in his eyes, but Dream saw instantly. “George, really, I’m sorry. You need to treat the burn anyway, come on.” He said, carefully helping wipe the tears since touch didn’t seem to be appreciated from him right now.

George sighed and stopped walking, not looking at Dream, which wasn’t too hard considering that he had to look up to look at him. “I just wanna go back to my island, Dream.” He said quietly, not caring about the stinging that came with the burn. “I can deal with the burn, just get your mom to send one ship, just one, and get me home.” The shorter said pleadingly, looking up at Dream finally and just trying to keep his composure.

Dream looked at him for a long moment, not wanting to have to let George leave, since he had gotten strangely attached to the stranger with a weird accent. “Ok,” he agreed, and saw a relieved look come upon the other’s face. “Let’s go talk to my mom, yeah?” He gave a reluctant smile to his friend, who nodded eagerly and followed him to his house.

“I honestly didn’t expect you to agree,” George mumbled as they walked, smiling to himself.

“Yeah.” Dream replied shortly, clearly thinking about this, and surprising George by how much he seemed to care.

“You… you okay, Dream?” George asked, putting a careful hand on his arm. He again got a similar answer, and George realized how attached he’d gotten to the chieftain's son by the amount of concern he felt, and therefore, how attached Dream had gotten to him.

So he went silent, and thought, for the entire walk, if he really wanted to leave. And decidedly, no, he didn’t, but he didn’t want to stay. He didn’t want to go home, where he had one friend who was always sneaking off somewhere, and they were always in fear of the next dragon attack. But he didn’t want to stay here forever, where there were constantly dragons prowling around, able to kill him if they pleased. George didn’t know what he wanted, then, so he just let this happen, figuring going home couldn’t be too bad.

“Here, my mom’s not home, but you can wait in here,” Dream explained as he opened the door for George, and walked in after him. George stood awkwardly, this his first time being in a chief’s house, it felt wrong to be here. He knew there was never a big power divide in most islands, but it still felt like it to him, because that’s what he was told as a kid. That chiefs were these mighty people, unable to be struck down by simple dragons, though that was proven wrong with their previous chief. 

“George, you can sit down,” Dream said, laughing at the awkwardness in George’s stance and patting the couch next to him. His previous tension and glowering had faded, figuring that he should make the most of what time he had left with George. When George hesitated, the blond rolled his eyes, “I’m not gonna bite, you’re fine.” He urged, and the other finally walked to the comfortable couch, and sat by Dream.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna get that burn checked out? Terrible terror burns are really annoying after a while.” Dream suggested, pointing to the wound on George’s forearm.

“Well, yeah, I guess, do you have stuff to help here? I don’t feel like going back to Bad, he and Skeppy were making out,” He said, a tad awkwardly with a laugh. Dream started wheezing and George couldn’t help but laugh more in response to it, it providing more of a reminder of how he was gonna miss Dream. 

“Of course they were, and yes, of course we have burn treatment here. We don’t use it often, though.” Dream nodded as his wheezing fit ceased and he got up, and walked into a hallway, motioning for George to stay there.

George waited on the couch, looking around the house and seeing a map on the floor, bigger than any map he’d seen in his life, with islands he hadn’t even heard of, much less seen on a map. Intrigued, he figured Dream wouldn’t mind him looking at it, and he dropped to the ground to study the map. He saw his island, marked with some childish drawing of a mad face, along with their ally island, and a crudely drawn smiley face on Stormay. He assumed that, considering the age of that part of the map, those were drawn by a child, maybe Dream, maybe a decade ago. His eyes trailed along the map, seeing island such as “Iris Isles”, “Red Reapes”, and many others that sounded quickly put together, but flowed nicely.

He heard the door open, and it took him a moment to realize that that was not Dream, and had to be the actual chief of this island. So, he jumped up and looked over to the doorway, where Puffy stood with a confused look on her face. He’d briefly met the woman in passing, when he and Dream had run in to get some food a day ago, but he hadn’t spoken anything but greetings.

“Uh… Hi.” George said awkwardly, tapping his fingers on his sides and hoping she recognized him as Dream’s friend.

“Hello, you’re George, yeah? The guy from Kerstre?” Puffy asked, recognizing the awkward brunet her son had become almost obsessed with.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s me, I’m glad you remember me.” The foreigner gave a short laugh, to ease the awkward tension, amplified by his own thoughts and annoyance with himself. “I was waiting for Dream to get me some like… supplies to help this burn I got from some terrible terror in the forest.” He explained, lifting his arm to show the burn to the chief.

“Ah, okay, okay, were you looking at my map?” She asked, pointing to the paper spread out on the floor.

“I was, sorry, I didn’t mean to like, invade privacy or anything.” George nodded, rubbing the back of his neck absently.

“No, no, you’re perfectly fine,” The white-haired lady shook her head, going to sit in front of the map, patting the spot next to her for George to sit as well. George quietly sat next to her, and after a few moments of silence, he pointed to his island on the map.

“Did Dream draw these faces on here?” He asked, with a fond smile on his face at the thought of young Dream, sneaking out here and drawing faces on the map.

“Oh, yes, he did.” Puffy gave an equally (maybe even more) fond laugh in response to the question. “Was convinced it would make the map better, tried to get it on other copies.” She added, rolling her eyes at the memory of the small child tugging at her shirt, whining to get his “signature” on the maps she was having copied.

“That seems like a Dream thing to do--” George got cut off by a purposefully arrogant scoff and voice.

“Talking about me with my mother now, are you, George?” Dream asked, appearing with the kit and a mask in his other hand, walking to the other two.

“Yeah, we were talking about your little drawing on my map.” Puffy answered for George, as Dream sat on the other side of him and held a hand out for George’s arm.

“Why would you tell him about that?” Dream complained in a whiny tone, George placing his arm in the open palm, seeing Dream take out some ointment. “This’ll sting, but it keeps infection at bay, okay?” He asked, looking up at the smaller to make sure it was alright to continue. George gave a nod and watched him smear the brown-tinted cream on the blistering area, making him instinctively flinch his arm away. The Stormarian just got a tighter grip on his arm, sending a glance mixed with warning and fondness that made the other feel a certain way and look at the map again.

“I haven’t seen a lot of these islands on maps,” George commented, desperately ignoring the fluttering in his stomach and using his free hand to point to certain places he hadn’t seen.

“Dragons let us explore more than ships, I’d assume. Some can fly long distances, and we don’t need to worry about sea-dwelling dragons, or big waves, or anything like that.” Puffy explained.

“What dragon do you ride- uh- Puffy?” George asked, struggling with what he should call her for a moment, before deciding on that and hoping that it was alright. Evidently, it was, because no one but him seemed phased by it.

“Oh, I have a death song named Mata, she’s rare, one of two I’ve seen of her kind in my life.” The chief said, smiling to herself at the mere thought of her dragon. “Here, this is what she looks like,” She added, pulling out a journal from her belt, flipping through pages before she got to the page she wanted, and handed it to George.

George looked at the page, and saw a beautiful dragon, patterns along its wings that reminded him of a butterfly, a long striped tail with almost feathery pieces of skin protruding from it. It had three spines on its back, and it’s neck tapered from the head, which had a horn on its nose, along with two spines in the back of its head. He stared in slight surprise, the beauty of it unlike most dragons he had seen, on Kerstre or Stormay.

“Wow, yeah, I’ve never seen a dragon like her. She’s very pretty,” George commented, studying the page for a moment longer before giving the book back to Puffy.

“Yes, she’s rare because hunters and trappers will prey on her for her kind for their amber, which she spits, and can be sold for a lot if done correctly. I’m sure Dream will tell you about her other abilities sometime.” Puffy explained, waving off the notion to explain her abilities now. “Which reminds me, was there any reason you two came here? Or was it just to treat the burn?”

“Oh, yeah, well, George, you wanna explain?” Dream asked, looking over at his friend with a quirked eyebrow. George just shook his head, feeling as if he was insulting the woman by wanting off her island so much. “Okay, basically, George wants to go back to Kerstre.” He said, masking the sadness that had previously been there easily.

“The ships are not going there, Dream, you know that?” Puffy pointed out, looking at Dream confused. He was the one who had previously told her to keep the ships from going to the rivalling island. Dream gave a look back, the two seeming to communicate silently for about 30 seconds, leaving George to awkwardly study the map again. He was startled out of his uncomfortable inspection of the piece of paper he already looked at by Puffy sighing, rolling her eyes and speaking again. “Okay, okay, I’ll send a ship back to Kerstre.” She agreed, even though she realized Dream didn’t want George to leave, he was convinced on getting him there.

“Oh! Thank you, thank you.” George said, sounding relieved. “I like it here, dragons are just obviously not fond of me and vice versa.” He added, hoping not to offend either of them.

“Bolk likes you, and you only got burnt because you fed a terrible terror. You should know they expect more food after that.” Dream reprimanded lightly, “When will the ship go out?” He asked, looking at Puffy.

The mother thought for a moment, seeing the hidden sadness mixed along with guilt in the blond’s eyes as he got up, prompting the other two to do the same. “Probably a day from now, it would be dark when we got there even if we left right now,” she pointed to the sun, signalling it was midday. “In the time being, just make sure about leaving and stuff, you can stay here if you’d like.” George blinked in surprise at the invitation to stay at the chief’s house, by the chief, not just her son.

“Thank you, okay, got it,” George smiled at her and then looked at Dream. “You wanna do anything while I’m here?” he asked, tilting his head at the blond, and seeing a white mask with a smiley face, similar to the one on the map in his hand. “What’s that?”

Dream looked at the clay mask in his hand, almost surprised like he forgot it was there, and motioned for George to follow him upstairs, which he did happily. “I made it when I was super young, but made it too big, so now it fits perfectly.” He explained as they went to presumably Dream’s room, covered with pages of dragons, islands, and just random info. The whole room yelled that it was owned by the blond.

“Does it have anything to keep it in place?” George hummed, sitting on the bed (which he realized immediately, he had missed good quality beds) and seeing Dream’s face light up like a kid who was told they’d be going on an adventure.

“Yep! I don’t wear it much anymore, so I detached the strap that it’s got. Let me find it.” Dream said, smiling at George and looking around his room for a few minutes. Meanwhile, George looked around the younger’s room, and again, if he told him it was someone else’s, he wouldn’t believe them one bit. There were pages stacked on the desk, about 2 inches of them, and others pinned to the wall, even some drawings of dragons and viking legends posted on his ceiling. George laid down on the bed, twisting his head to read the posters, trying to see if he recognized any of them. 

“Dream,” George began, with a laugh in his voice as he saw a recurring theme in the multiple pieces of paper pasted onto the ceiling. “Are you a fanboy?” He asked, looking up at the other who immediately stopped his search for the strap of leather that went with his shiny mask.

“No, I don’t know why you would ever think that.” Dream shook his head, continuing his search, trying to be nonchalant about it.

“Yes you are! You’ve got so many posters of this one guy!” George protested to the denial, sitting up and throwing a pillow at his friend.

“Listen, George, he’s hot!” Dream whined, making George burst out in giggles at the stupid answer.

“Shut up, Dream,” He said through his giggle fit, rolling his eyes. “Why do you have so many posters of… what’s his name?” The brunet asked, not seeing a name on the at least 5 posters around the room.

“I… um…” Dream began, chuckling to himself, “I dunno George, I just think he’s hot.” He said, and it was literally the truth. “I put them up when I was figuring out that oh shit I am gay. You never had something like that?” The blond gave a knowing look to the other.

George blinked, looking genuinely a bit offended, “What are you implying there?” He asked carefully, his stomach turning slightly.

“George,” Dream said, beginning to giggle, “I’m asking if you never had a phase when you were figuring out your sexuality--” He was suddenly cut off by the very defensive Kerstrian.

“No! Of course I didn’t, Dream. I don’t like guys. I’m not… I’m not gay.” George said quickly as his voice raised in volume, glaring daggers at the other.

“Oh, sorry, I just thought, I don’t know. I shouldn’t have assumed.” Dream said, even though he had a suspicion of George still, just that it was repressed. He gave a smile, and George slowly relaxed, embarrassed by his outburst. But, he didn’t want Dream thinking he was into guys, and try to flirt with him or anything. Also, what would his parents think if he was? He almost rolled his eyes at the thought; he knew what would happen, he’d be kicked out and have to live on the outskirts where ‘The Blade’ lived. His island wasn’t homophobic, hell, their Chief was bisexual, it was just that where he was, it wasn’t super accepted, and he couldn’t afford to live anywhere else.

“Did you find the latch thing?” George asked awkwardly, trying to drive the conversation away from his abrupt objection.

“Oh! Yep, it’s right here,” Dream said, and the tension quickly dissolved with the different subject. He showed George the mask, which now had old leather straps attached to it, with a buckle in the middle to attach them. He put it over his head, obscuring his face completely, only fluffy blond hair sticking out of the top. After that, he pulled his hood up, causing only a single tuft of hair able to be seen. “It hides my face pretty well, yeah?” He asked happily, walking over to George and sitting beside him.

“Can you see?” George asked, after a nod in agreement with the previous question, looking at the mask, and seeing outlines of eyes through the little seemingly painted eyes. Apparently, they were carved, and the mix of human eyes with a crude smile was definitely unsettling, but the fact he could practically feel Dream’s genuine smile underneath the polished clay mask, made it less creepy in a way.

“Yep!” The man said happily, pointing to the two eye holes, and almost poking himself in the eyes in the process, causing him to flinch. They both rolled their eyes at his stupidity, then burst into laughter again after looking at each other for a few seconds again. “Here, you try it,” Dream said, slipping the mask off of his face after undoing the buckle on the back of his head. Pushing his hood down, he messed with his hair and handed the item to George.

George put the mask on his face, trying to do the buckle, and after a few attempts, some mocking, he managed to get it situated on his face comfortably. Dream looked slightly down to see how it looked, his hair hidden by the mask, and big doe eyes staring at him through the two carved eyes, pupils slightly dilated, presumably from the darkness that came with the eyes not being over his eyes for a bit. Dream barely was able to keep his mouth closed, because George looked stupidly cute in his mask, slightly bigger on his face than it should’ve been.

“You look pretty cute in my mask, George,” He said, voice going lower by complete accident on his part.

“Shut up, dumbass,” George said, his eyes darting away, and ignoring the butterflies in his stomach at the slight casual possessiveness. ‘My mask’ his mind quietly repeated to him, and he scrambled to get it off. Once he did, Dream choked on his own spit, but played it off as a chuckle at the embarrassment. George’s face had gone red, and in the scramble to get the white piece of ceramic off, his hair had gotten all messed up, which he was now sadly trying to get neat again. They made eye contact, and George saw his friend staring, so immediately he looked away again, clearing his throat which successfully got Dream’s attention off his red face and tousled hair. “Anyway,” George said, with a stutter in his voice from the sudden tension between the two. “You um… wanna go to the clearing?” He asked, recovering from the flustered mess he’d previously become, and got up.

“Yep! Clearing, sounds good.” Dream agreed.

It was the next day, and George had woken up in the guest bedroom of Puffy’s house, shaken awake by the dream he had. The previous arousal the… interesting dream had caused was replaced by fear, because it was about Dream. As much as George wanted to laugh at the easy pun there, he couldn’t, because the pictures of Dream hovering over him, teasing him, his hands on his throat--

“George? You ready to go?” A knock came to his door, and the dread only grew as he recognized the culprit of the dream’s voice. 

“Yep! I’m alright, good, yeah!” he called back, sitting up in his bed. Luckily, the erection that had gathered over the night flagged from the fear he’d gotten at the realization of who had been in his dream.

“Okay, get ready and everything, we’re leaving in half an hour.” Dream said, then he heard the footsteps receding from his door. The realization fully hit him then, and he drew in a sharp, shaking breath. Quietly, he panicked for some unknown number of minutes, his mind shouting reprimands at him in his father’s voice, questioning what the actual fuck that was, and just in general being too loud for his liking. But slowly, he convinced himself it was because of the awkward mask interaction they’d had, and not anything else. He didn’t like guys, so he didn’t like Dream, and his mind was just trying to hide away the tension they’d had since then with that. Yep.

He walked out of his room after stretching and walking down the stairs, getting a greeting from Puffy, who seemed to be already almost out the door. “Hey, George, the ships leaving soon, be ready.” She said, giving a simple wave. She was beyond sure he wouldn’t be gone for long, given the way how him and her son interacted.

“I will, bye, Puffy!” George said happily, sitting at the table to see a note on it, along with some bread, eggs and bacon.

‘I’m in the shower rn, you can eat while im doing that :) -dre’ It read, and George felt himself swoon slightly over everything in it, the signing the little smiley face. Purely platonically, of course, you can admire your friend platonically, it’s fine. George took the note and quietly stuffed it in his pocket, and started eating the plate set out for him, humming quietly to himself.

“George, you started eating without me?” Came a jokingly sad voice, and George turned to see that Dream hadn’t even bothered with getting dressed, still damp from the shower and simply a towel around his waist. George choked on the eggs he was eating, turning around quickly. He could practically feel the smirk and arrogance. The fucker knew what he was doing.

“Put some clothes on, you freak,” George complained, his face completely red and sure so were his ears. 

“I will, but I think you like what you see, Georgie,” Dream teased, caused the smaller to roll his eyes, and soon he heard him going back upstairs. After another two minutes, he came back, thankfully dressed, and George waited for him to finish his breakfast, making casual chat.

“Hey, by the way,” Dream mentioned as he was putting his dish away, “Do you think that, even though you’re going back home, we could still see each other?” he asked, trying to be casual about it but his tension was obvious.

“Well… sure, but how?” George asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay, so basically,” Dream pulled out a piece of paper and shoved it into George’s hands. “You go here,” He pointed to a marked spot on the paper, and George recognized it as a map of Kerstre. “And I’ll fly there at some point. Sound good?” He smiled proudly at his plan.

“How long have you been planning this?” George asked, giggling lightly, “I mean, it does sound good, but I’m just wondering.” He added.

“I spent a few hours last night thinking about it.” Dream shrugged as they walked out the door of his house, George waving goodbyes to the few people he’d become friendly with.

“You’re so dumb, meet me there in three days?”

“Bet.”

**Author's Note:**

> Multi chapter fic pog :) tags/ ratings will change as we go on. I’ll try to work on other fics at the same time as this but it’ll be slow. Also, I have a twitter, @dummywithnosrtn so go follow me.


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